As the Republican primaries continue on, a big topic of conversation has been how individual presidents would impact the economy. Ritholtz has always done a pretty good job at digitally shaking his head at these kinds of conversations (see here, here, and here, for starters). That being said, his dismissing of the President’s impact on market movement is typically looked at from a 20,000 foot perspective. What about the immediate aftermath?

Behold- Presidential elections, who won, the Dow’s response the next day, and mood one month later.

You’ll notice that it really didn’t matter if the election brought in a big business advocate or an anti-business agenda. It didn’t matter if an incumbent was voted up or not. In fact, the average response one day later was -0.55%, and one month later, we saw average returns of -0.11%, in what looks like a case of the old adage ‘buy the rumor, sell the fact’.

In other words, quit trying to call the markets by primary numbers. You might as well throw darts blindly.